Read and learn new words!

We need ways to bring back kampung spirit to heartlands, but also, to redefine our idea of 'neighbours'

by Debbie Soon

Traditionally, we think of our neighbours as those who live
right next to us and our neighbourhoods as the physical areas
surrounding our domestic places of dwelling. But what do the words
"neighbour" and "neighbourhood" really mean in the context of Singapore
today?

The "neighbour principle" was legally established in
1932, when Lord Atkin held in the case of Donahue and Stevenson "the
rule that you are to love your neighbour becomes in law, (that) you must
not injure your neighbour". This means we must, at the very least, not
intend to harm our neighbours.

Who, then, is my neighbour?
This ruling came with the broadest of definitions, where neighbours are
people who might be "closely and directly affected" by our actions so
that we "ought reasonably to have them in contemplation".

At another level, neighbourhoods represent communities that have a
special place in our hearts - which give us that sense of belonging and
identity. It is found in the collective and is greater than the sum of
the individual parts, or rather, persons.

This notion of
who our neighbours and where our neighbourhoods are has evolved with
societal change in Singapore. In the early days where kampungs were a
regular feature on the housing scene, lives tended to revolve
considerably more around the domestic neighbourhood, directly around
those who lived physically next to us.

As Singaporeans
moved into public housing flats, and as more women entered the
workforce, our sense of identity and the communities that we relate to
has shifted well beyond our physical home.

THE CHANGING SOCIAL PICTURE

In fact, as homes got smaller than the open vastness of kampungs,
people relocated to their Housing and Development Board flats guarded
their privacy jealously once they shut their doors. Identifying who you
"ought reasonably to have in contemplation" might not be the person
living next to you.

The entry of a large number of migrants
over the past few years, along with the cultural and social norms from
their countries of origin, have changed the way Singaporeans look at
themselves and foreigners, neighbours and neighbourhoods. This trend of
bringing in a certain number of migrants each year is likely to
continue, to mitigate the effects of falling birth rates and an ageing
society.

Yet, paradoxically, the role of neighbourhoods has
become all the more crucial to the process of social integration of
everyone in Singapore's residential estates - not only those in public
housing.

At a basic level, one can count on a good
neighbour to gently point the way when social norms have unwittingly
been infringed. But Singapore lacks the close-knit communities found in
rural small towns that, we imagine, would help newcomers and even those
that have been around for a while quickly understand and be reminded of
the social norms of the community and country.

Research by
political scientist Robert Putnam of the Harvard Kennedy School of
Government has shown that the introduction of greater cultural diversity
tends to erode trust and cohesion in society. Hence, culturally diverse
communities and societies need to work doubly hard at fostering links
between cultural groups and building bonds among those they live in
close proximity to, so that they can "reasonably ... have them in
contemplation".

Neighbourhoods as communities can provide
that sense of identity that one can feel anchored to in today's
fast-changing world. That is why we must think seriously about them and
begin by asking ourselves afresh: Who are our neighbours today?

NEIGHBOURLINESS IN MALLS, AT WORK

Many public programmes have been introduced over the years to
foster trust and understanding in our domestic neighbourhoods. Findings
from research by the Institute of Policy Studies among local- and
foreign-born citizens suggest that the home is seen as a private space
and Singaporeans do desire a general sense of good neighbourliness than
any more intrusive sort of community-building in our public housing
heartlands.

This implies that there may be limits to how we
share our social norms with newcomers if efforts are targeted at public
housing estates.

Existing policy initiatives aimed at
developing a sense of neighbourliness, the process of "social norming",
may indeed have to extend beyond domestic neighbourhoods to workplaces,
schools and other common and public amenities - supermarkets, shopping
malls, parks and the like.

What are the ways in which those
residing here can properly consider the people they meet in these
places their "neighbours"? That they practise some common Singaporean
socio-cultural norms like queuing up, placing trash in the appropriate
places, where and how to hang out clothes and mops to dry, keeping
corridors clear of clutter and that sense of respect for the different
races and religions, the smells and sounds of our land?

RETHINK PUBLIC HOUSING

At the same time, the time has come to re-examine the way public housing is built.

Singapore has come a long way since the early days of public
housing development, where simple and utilitarian blocks of flats were
very quickly built to accommodate a fast-expanding population. Today,
Singapore is home to award-winning public housing projects like the
Pinnacle@Duxton.

Let us build on this success and think of
ways to bring back some of that kampung spirit in our heartlands. We can
think of developing vertical villages, kampungs, more public spaces,
more common thoroughfares.

That is what Nominated Member of
Parliament Laurence Lien suggested: Creating "infrastructure that
supports the building of relationships". Allowing Singaporeans to
discuss and vote at the local level, on what they will see in common
spaces in their neighbourhoods, is likely to increase the rate of usage
and the chance that they might get to know their neighbours better.

In addition, purpose-driven living arrangements have seen a
greater level of community spirit, in the form of arrangements where
single elderly folk care for each other. Singapore might find the
extension of this initiative a worthy experiment.

For
instance, families that would like the idea of taking turns to take care
of each other's children should be able to find each other - and who
knows how that can be developed further.

Singapore stands
at the cusp of an exciting future. The time has come for us to rethink
the notion of who our neighbours are and re-imagine our neighbourhoods.

Debbie Soon works in the politics and governance cluster at the
Institute of Policy Studies. The institute is holding a conference on
integration today.